The Child Mind Insitute, an NYC-based organization dedicated to improving mental health care for children, offers advice for parents and teachers affected by the Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting in Newtown, CT, including how to help children cope with tragedy and grief.
Harold Koplewicz, president of the Child Mind Institute, has written two articles that may be helpful to parents and teachers at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, where a shooting took place on Dec. 14, killing more than 25 people.
1. The first, Helping Your Child Cope with the Death of Friends and Classmates, is meant to help parents break the news and help kids handle their feelings, which may include grief as well as anxiety about whether such a thing could happen to them.
2. The second, The Teacher’s Role When Tragedy Strikes, is meant to guide teachers on how to address tragedy in the classroom, which is where the death of these children is likely to affect the other children the most.
Another resource for parents and teachers affected by this tragedy is Caring for Kids After a School Shooting, which features helpful advice from Paramjit Joshi, MD, chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, DC.
For more information on and advice from the Child Mind Institute, visit www.childmind.org.
